Palghar: Flood conditions continued to prevail across Palghar district on Friday despite a reduction in rainfall, leaving three people dead in Dahanu, and with several villages remaining cut off and without electricity. Rescue teams evacuated 244 people stranded by floodwaters, while nearly 1,500 residents were shifted to safer locations as authorities continued relief operations.The heavy rain over the past few days has severely affected Dahanu, Talasari and Palghar talukas, submerging roads, damaging bridges and culverts, and disrupting connectivity to several villages.The three people who lost their lives in rain-related incidents in Dahanu taluka include Jagdish Machhi, 39, who was swept away in floodwaters, and Rupesh Dhadga, 30, who died after slipping into a waterlogged area while on his way to his farmland. The identity of the third deceased person is yet to be established, officials said.Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deployed for rescue and relief operations across the district. In a joint operation, the NDRF and the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation’s fire brigade rescued 244 people and two animals from Gunjale, Kirat and the S Crane Factory area.Flooding also disrupted road traffic at several locations. Traffic on stretches of National Highway 48, including the Talasari-Ahmedabad carriageway, as well as on several state highways and major district roads, was temporarily suspended after roads were inundated, culverts were washed away, landslides occurred and trees fell on roadways.The torrential rain caused extensive damage to MSEDCL‘s power distribution infrastructure. A total of 97 high- and low-tension electricity poles collapsed, while around nine kilometres of power lines were damaged. In addition, 25 distribution transformers and 10 power feeders were affected, leaving several villages without electricity. MSEDCL said efforts were underway to restore power supply across the district by Saturday.The public works infrastructure also suffered significant damage. Nearly 29.45 km of roads have been damaged, while 24 cross-drainage structures and causeways and six bridges have been affected. The preliminary cost of restoration has been estimated at Rs 13.5 crore.District collector Dr Indurani Jakhad said the administration was closely monitoring the situation and that rescue, relief and restoration work was continuing on a war footing.Vasai-Virar faced a second consecutive day of complete disruption in water supply on Friday as power supply to key water treatment facilities remained unrestored too.Heavy rainfall over the past three to four days has knocked out electricity at the Suryanagar Water Treatment Plant at Kavdasa, the old and new Surya dam water supply schemes at the Maswan pumping station, and the Dhuktan Water Treatment Plant. The outage has brought the city’s water distribution system to a standstill.
